The number of bands per hook is trial and error in order to achieve best feel and level. I used 4 per corner and one per center to start. I replaced them every 18 mos or so as well to prevent them from snapping by surprise at the worst possible moment.

Very old photo here but this works great, I still have a few people using them. The trick is to not have the turntable touching anything-it needs to bounce freely. It's important the turntable feet sit in the center of the bands, Standard ashtrays, double bands, the largest available at Staples.

Very old photo here but this works great, I still have a few people using them. The trick is to not have the turntable touching anything-it needs to bounce freely. It's important the turntable feet sit in the center of the bands, Standard ashtrays, double bands, the largest available at Staples.

Paul, when you say double bands, does that mean you have two stacked together at each location I.E. 8 bands per ashtray?

Question: i have tried this method before & found it to be different from the base suspension. This only makes it bounce up & down like a spring and noticed that it kind of causes a rumble that flows through the platter vs the base suspension is alot more smoother and easier on the turntable, or maybe im just not making sense?

I've found that the ashtray method provides 100% feedback isolation. I had tested it years ago with a turntable sitting directly on a subwoofer cabinet.

The base suspension method uses a board the size of a turntable that's suspended with bands around it's circumference. This board itself can pickup bass and vibrate. It's also susceptible to causing feedback in the 300~400 Hz range.

+1 on the ashtrays. they don't look great but they really do work as well as anything, with a lot less headaches.

when i was in college back in 2003 my friend and i built a wooden frame rig with 2 floating boxes for the 1200s. we had hooks in all four corners plus a large "eye" hook screwed into all 4 midpoints of each side of the 1200 boxes. we threaded bungee cords thru each eye hook and secured them on the corner hooks of the frame. it took some trial and error with the bungees because the center of gravity on 1200's is not dead center. we actually found some bungees of varying length and used the shorter ones on the side that was where the center of gravity was. it worked great in our basement nightclub, except when someone would bump into the booth.

but to make a long story short, the ashtrays work just as well and are portable. of course i only learned this a few years ago.

Thank you Disko! Over the weekend, i was able to construct the floating base with rubber bands & it actually turned out better then i expected. The only part i missed was to drill a circle hole on the center of the board to feed the wires through, but that can easily be accomplished. The only thing i couldve been more meticilous about was getting the measurment accurate for the hooks to be screwed onto the board which was roughly a 4 1/2 inch stretch for the bands

The holes are kind of optional, they help in my setup since I don't really have much room at the front because of the mixer and also the cables from the far right turntable would possibly have been just long enough without this hole. As you say it's an easy fix to add later if needed.

Good to hear that you sorted things out, mind sharing some photos?

My hooks are all placed with the same distance from each corner. I don't know what it's really supposed to be, but I found that this work well with my setup.

My rubber bands are a bit different from the ones posted though, they are just under 4" long and only 5/16" wide. I tried combining the setup with different types of rubber bands, but ended up using just one type since the selection at staples here is kind of limited.

Basically I use the same amount of rubber bands on each hook all the way around, 4 rubber bands in my case, and then I use the black knob on the underside to adjust and compensate for weight differences to make it as near level as possible. My exact setup is not tweaked to perfection so there's room for adjustments and improvements, but it's close enough and works well for me so I decided to not get to anal about it.

if I can remember hte steve dash involved consoles correctly, the turntable suspension was constructed as follows:

1. the platform for hte turntable had a downward extruding box of more ply. How deep? It seemed like almost the size of a turntable road case.
2. Open eye hooks were installed outward at the middle positions of the platform.
3. Open eye hooks were installed somewere at the corners of the box extrusion.
4. Open eye hooks were installed downward at the corners of the console surface hole.
5. Rubber bands connected the console corner with the mid-point hooks, and connected the console hooks with the box corner hooks.

This seemed to eliminate feedback with 2 15" reflex subs in the booth, and any number of bertha subs on the floor. It is a lot of work, and the rubber bands do fatigue over time. Other elastic connection methods might be longer lasting. The midpoint connections allowed for lateral sway, and the vertical points to reduce the load the lateral supports endure. Just like hanging speakers, the further one gets from a dead hang, the more and more tension once has to support.

It never seemed like djs particularly enjoyed the swaying decks. House djs who let tracks play out, cueing and recueing before mixing intros/outros seemed to tolerate it, but any djs manipulating the tracks more quickly, or simply any record manipulation loathed it, with some techno djs going as far as stuff bar napkins between the console and platform to reduce sway. The better the sway reduction so went feedback suppression, and these djs played exactly the type of music which benefitted most from feedback suppression- a lose-lose situation.

It has been over a decade since I've encountered such consoles. When I moved, I did have sonic success with rolls of tape or cut plastic pipe with wrapped rubber bands, but the djs did not like the bounce. Squash balls sitting under slabs of stone or steel are standard here. The balls also need periodic replacement, and are more expensive than rubber bands, but the decks sit still. I've injected standard caulking silicon (wear gloves, it is messy stuff) into a muffin form for cheap effective footrests, but just as important as acoustic isolation, so is keeping the surface the turntable sits on from moving, and this is where the concrete or steel mass comes in handy.